Finn Love Fest: One For All, All For “One All” -- And All For Neil

By DUNCAN STRAUSS With apologies to Sara Lee’s old ad slogan, these days I think it’s more accurate to say, Everybody doesn’t like something, but nobody doesn’t love Neil Finn. And if, for some reason, you’re thinking “Well, I don’t love Neil Finn,” I’d like to suggest that if you care at all about melodically-rich, wonderfully-crafted pop music of the highest order, well, you just don’t love Neil Finn yet.

After all, look at the musicians who love him enough to have joined him in the studio and/or on stage in the past coupla years: Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, ex-Smith’s guitarist Johnny Marr, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien and Phil Selway, former Prince sidewomen and solo (duo?) artists Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie, violinist-multiinstrumentalist-singer extraordinaire Lisa Germano, ex-Soul Coughing bassist Sebastian Steinberg, as well as sterling singer-songwriters Tim Finn, Grant-Lee Phillips and Jon Brion.

An eclectic group, to be sure, and it’s unlikely you could get these folks to agree on much of anything. Indeed, probably about the only thing they have in common--apart from all being enormously gifted and accomplished--is that they really do love Neil Finn, and have demonstrated that love by eagerly participating in the making or playing of his music, whether that’s reflected in joining him for the studio album “One All,” the concert collection recorded in New Zealand, “7 Worlds Collide: Neil Finn & Friends Live At The St. James” (also a DVD), or the Summer string of U.S. concerts to support these releases.

And it’s clear, having attended two of those concerts, and heard bits and pieces about others, that people on both sides of the stage absolutely adore him, that something truly special’s going on. I mean, it’s one thing to see a packed house of fans who obviously are passionate, giddy and blissful as an artist’s concert unfolds, but quite another

to see at least an equal degree of excitement and joy register on the faces of the musicians playing with that artist. That artist, of course, being Neil Finn.

A perfect case in point is Lisa Germano. She first burst onto the national scene playing violin on John Mellencamp’s 1987 “Lonesome Jubilee” album and tour, and has since carved out a nifty solo career, recording five albums that may not exactly qualify as commercial blockbusters, but have certainly been admirable, often acclaimed efforts; “Geek The Girl” made Spin magazine’s list of the best 90 albums of the 90s.

At this point, fully established as a significant artist in her own right, there’s no reason to think that she would again work in a sideman role--or, at least, that it would take an artist irresistibly spectacular to consider doing so. Someone like...Neil Finn.

I guess so, because Germano is the only musician of those mentioned above who’s been involved in all three undertakings-- "One All," "7 Worlds Collide," and the concert tour--and still seems utterly swept up in the Finn music she’s performing, swaying on her piano bench, swooping as she bows her violin, dancing whenever she can, grinning as broadly as any ticket-holder. But that’s exactly the point: Lisa Germano is a huge Neil Finn fan.

And so, obviously, are the others, including bona fide rock stars like Vedder, Marr, O’Brien and Selway--the latter of whom accepted Finn’s invitation to travel down to New Zealand, spend the better part of two weeks forming a de facto band, learning and rehearsing dozens of songs and then presenting a string of concerts; that’s the premise of the shows which led to “7 Worlds Collide”--a huge undertaking and, obviously, no small commitment.

This is a far cry from sitting in for a song when a fellow artist is performing 20 minutes from your house. Vedder and Marr not only participated in the entire New Zealand experience, but they also joined Finn for one or more of his U.S. concert dates--Marr actually performed at all five California shows. And, evidently, couldn’t have been more delighted to do so. I didn’t see either of the shows Vedder popped up on but I gather he was positively gleeful in his guest turns, just as he is on the “7 Worlds Collide” CD and even more unmistakably on the DVD.

But seeing Marr in action on the DVD as well as at both the Anaheim and Hollywood House of Blues was a revelation of sorts and, again, a veritable Neil Finn love fest. He seemed thoroughly joyous when he bounded out for the planned guest segments-- playing such Smiths classics as “How Soon Is Now” and his own “Down On The Corner”--but perhaps his love for hanging and playing with Neil was better revealed midway through the first night of the two Hollywood shows.

Finn and Grant-Lee Philips were doing some acoustic duets, the stage was otherwise free of musicians--and Marr strolled out unannounced (and, clearly, unexpected) and blew some harmonica to accompany Philips and Finn version of “Four Seasons.” Clearly, he simply felt at once inspired (and comfortable) enough to spontaneously join Neil and Grant. Even more clearly, this was a guy totally digging the situation.

But why? Why do these musicians dig it this much? Why do they love Neil Finn so much?

At this point--having dragged you this far into this piece--I suppose I really should have the answers, but I’m not sure I do. But I can certainly speculate, make a home-educated guess or two. There likely are myriad reasons and some of them probably apply more for certain musicians/artists than others. Presumably, however, much of the Finn Fondness must be rooted in his body of work, which runs long and deep, if not wide. He was a chief creative force behind two excellent and much beloved bands--Split Enz and Crowded House.

Split Enz was actually formed by Tim Finn in the very early 70s, and while they were an adventurous,willfully idiosyncratic group (they were often compared to the Genesis of that era, right down to wearing assorted Peter Gabriel-style getups), they made no commercial waves until Tim’s little brother Neil joined a few years-- and LPs--into the Enz life.

This personnel change had almost seismic reverberations: Split Enz shifted from a colorful, quirky progressive rock band to a more down-the-line, polished outfit dispensing Beatles-esque pop, including the international hit “I Got You”--which also telegraphed the emergence of an enormously gifted songwriter: Neil Finn.

They toured extensively, did well with other songs and albums, but as do many good, semi-successful bands, Split Enz eventually reached the end of the road--indeed, Tim quit the group before the group called it quits with ‘84’s studio swansong(s) “See Ya Round.” But before the end of the Enz, the band had made a bunch of fine music and fervent fans, including a young lad named Eddie Vedder...

Not long after, Neil formed Crowded House, whose success was freakishly frontloaded. The self-titled debut release’s first single, “Don’t Dream It’s Over” was a massive hit, reaching Number 2 on the Billboard charts, and while other tunes were certainly radio-friendly, the band never reached those giddy, rarefied commercial heights again.

But what a mountain of marvelous material these guys assembled: “World Where You Live”...”Now We’re Getting Somewhere”......”Something So Strong”... “Love This Life”...”Sister Madly”...”It’s Only Natural”...”Fall At Your Feet”...”Weather With You”...”Into Temptation,” a half zillion others.

And this was a singularly entertaining, engaging, excellent and wildly witty live act that toured throughout many parts of the planet. In ‘94, in fact, the noted British music magazine Q conferred on Crowded House its award for Best International Act over such contenders as U2, Nirvana and--wait for it--Mr. Vedder’s band Pearl Jam.

Against that 20-year Crowded House/Split Enz backdrop, it’s probably not all that perplexing that Neil Finn developed a gargantuan fan base, nor that it includes Vedder, Marr, Germano, et al. And some of these higher-profile fans have an especially strong connection with Finn’s pre-solo, pre-Crowded House oeuvre. Of the four numbers Vedder sings on the “7 Worlds” CD, for instance, one is Pearl Jam’s “Parting Ways and the other three are all Split Enz tunes, including “I See Red,” on which he’s backed by Betchadupa, the band led by Neil’s son Liam.

During one interview on the DVD (which is fantastic, by the way--it looks and sounds splendid and includes everything on the CD, plus nine more songs and cool interview footage), Vedder, in a discourse worthy of Prof. Irwin Corey, explains that he loved Split Enz when he was a kid, so it was great to sing Split Enz music backed by Neil’s kid, and how this now means when he has a kid, that kid will no doubt be similarly affected by Liam’s music, then Liam will need to have a kid to continue the cycle, and so on.

In a different, earlier interview segment, Vedder and Neil separately discuss the way Vedder responded to Neil’s invitation to participate in the St. James shows with such an instant acceptance that Neil didn’t fully trust it. But Vedder makes it clear he was in from the first second Neil outlined his plan. Sure enough, he came to New Zealand for the whole process, and turned up at Neil shows in San Juan Capistrano and Seattle.

So that may give you a sense of Eddie Vedder’s love for Neil Finn. In a more direct and entirely unsolicited declaration offered during a guest turn at the Anaheim House of Blues show, Wendy Melvoin gushed about what an amazing, artistically-thrilling experience it was to work with Neil on “One All” (originally released as “One Nil,” I think that’s the title everywhere except the U.S. version, which also swaps two tracks, re-mixes others and is re- sequenced), co-writing two of the songs (three on “Nil”) and playing on 10 of them (all 12 on “Nil”).

She may have hinted--and either way it was pretty easy to infer--that part of this creative bliss springs from Neil being the quintessential nice guy: warm, friendly, inclusive, encouraging. Along those lines, early in the Anaheim show, Neil mentioned that the father of Shon Sullivan--the guitarist in the touring band--was in the audience, later mentioned it once or twice more, then graciously insisted that Sullivan step into the spotlight to sing a tune.

Other times on other nights, Neil proved to be quite pleased to yield the floor to his band mates, ostensibly asking one to fill time while “I tune my guitar.” But what this really translated to was Sullivan or Germano having an opportunity to sing one of their own songs, backed by this killer band--drummer Scott McPherson, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, keyboardist-violinist-guitarist Germano, guitarist-keyboardist Sullivan--including Neil, whose guitar was somehow suddenly tuned and ready to play.

For these reasons and so many others, I’m guessing, the regular and visiting musicians adore Finn. And for overlapping reasons, so do we who buy his records and tickets to his concerts. “One All” is an extraordinary achievement, so smooth and winning and seemingly effortless that it may be easy to overlook that it’s probably one of the best albums of the year. Too, “7 Worlds Collide,” as live discs go, is a terrifically odd bird, presenting stuff from the catalogs of Split Enz, Crowded House, The Smiths, Pearl Jam, Lisa Germano and Neil Finn--including three songs from “One All”!!!

When it comes to the live side of things, I’m just sorry there don’t seem to be more U.S. dates in the offing, and that I didn’t catch more of the shows that Neil & Co. did perform. But that makes me treasure all the more “7 Worlds Collide” and the concerts I did attend.

No doubt another factor in the atypical love for Neil observable at his concerts--again, on both sides of the stage--is that he extends that Crowded House tradition of shows being grounded in stellar musicianship while emphasizing looseness, spontaneity and humor. At that first Hollywood night, someone handed him a proposed set list, which he mock-officiously evaluated and commented on--then for the rest of the night made that list a running gag.

At that same show, a fan near the stage presented Neil a gift--a necktie along with a fan letter in the form of a poem. He started reading the poem, and then an idea popped into his head. He grabbed his acoustic guitar and set the poem to music, turning into a characteristically catchy ditty. When he finished the tune, he knotted the tie on his mike stand as the crowd went bonkers--probably no one more so than the fan-poet, who no doubt got an amazing thrill and a lifelong memory.

It presumably goes without saying that the set changes considerably from night to night, apparently influenced by factors ranging from which guests are on board to nothing more than whim. Not long after John Entwistle died and the Who launched their tour, Neil and the band played a snippet of “Pinball Wizard” opening night of their tour and, some subsequent nights, all of “The Kids Are Alright” a few times, including in Seattle with Vedder singing. Other covers ranged from “Something” to “Sweet Home Alabama”(!)

Finn’s enthusiastic, unironic embracing of classic rock gems--if I may digress one more time--is yet another trait that reminds me of Jon Brion, who joined Neil onstage in Seattle. Like Finn, Brion worships at the Beatles altar--and, also like Finn, is one of the very few such artists who’s actually created some songs that stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Lennon-McCartney standouts, particularly on his “Meaningless” album.

I plan to do an article soon for this site on Brion--who’s a revered, in-demand producer and staggeringly versatile and adept musician--but in the meantime, let me just say that if you’re in L.A. on a Friday, proceed directly to Largo for Brion’s weekly performance extravaganza there; if you’re not somewhere between mightily impressed and totally blown away, I’ll refund your money. Much like Neil, Brion always invites guest musicians to play with him--and occasionally Neil has joined him there.

Of course, like many of his eminent singer-songwriter peers, Neil loves Largo--one of his three California clubs dates in March around his South By Southwest appearance was at this tiny Hollywood venue. And vice-versa: Largo--as well as it’s great, savvy, respectful audiences--loves Neil Finn.

Hey, doesn’t everyone?